Community Card Games

Community cards are the cards dealt face-up – shared by all the players on the table to form their final poker hand. The complete set is also known as the “board”.

One particular difference between community games is the shape the cards make when dealt face-up on the table, a geometrical shape in other words, such as a line, a cross, a circle and so forwards.

Community card poker games are all games with cards shared with all players and laid-out on the table.

The most common community card poker game is Texas Holdem, which has the shared cards laid-out in a line. Holdem poker consists of 2 hole cards (private cards) dealt face-down to each player, followed by a betting round. It continues with 3 community cards (the “flop”) dealt and shared between the players, with another betting round right after. A fourth community card is dealt (the “turn”), and another betting round followed. Finishing with a fifth community card (the “river”), and a final betting round, where you will then show your 5-card poker hand made out from a combination of the community cards and/or your 2 hole cards. The final hand will determine a winner.

Usually the rule of thumb is hitting a hand at the flop in order to continue – no flop no bet. This is particularly true for beginners, as it would be quite risky to continue betting after the flop if they do not have a good hand to keep on playing – unless you are trying your bluffing skills. In some cases, it might be worth continuing to play the community cards, such as when you carry a good chance of a straight or flush.

As you can read from the above brief steps of Holdem Poker, there is a betting round after each time the dealer deals a face-up community card. These will obviously alter your poker hand and your situation. This of course is the stance with Texas Holdem, as community cards have different rules of how they may be used with other poker games. In Holdem for instance, you can have a final poker hand just with the community cards and having no need to use your private cards. Clearly, so can your opponents, and so it is mainly good for a push.

Make sure to go through each poker game carefully in order to understand how each community card poker game differentiates from the others, and play the game – it is the only way to understand how community cards work, look and alter the games.